Training Day
by Sophie-Lophie
Summary: Four years later and the team are still the same. Well, once you cancel out the sexual tension, swearing and new advanced weaponry to play with. How an average day in the Titan's Tower goes down - training, the odd grappling hold, herbal tea, bank robberies, and much to Robin's annoyance, another devastating plot to destroy the Titans.
1. Dawn with the manly men

**Hey there, world! Well, consider this a nice little tester, a little break into the strange but thrilling world of fan fiction. I've been studying for too long and thought I might as well keep up my level of story-writing for the ol' English exam, have a good creative binge and blast out a good sample of how I would love to portray the titans. Just relaxed and fun, enjoy! ;)**

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***FYI - they're like, all around early twenties here - **

**e.g. Cy's 23, Robins 22 and so on…..you know yourself. Beast boy would probably be 20 or younger when you think about it, so Rae and Star are around the same age as Robin ****J**

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**It was just hitting dawn as a warm orange sun gently came over the horizon, basking the calm ocean in front of it in a gentle peachy glow. Robin stood, fixed, at****the main room windows, a small white cup of green tea resting in his hands.**

** He was still on time, as always - half past seven, and he was in full uniform, and had the tower to himself.**

**And this view to himself.**

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**.**

**.**

_**Beep beep beep beep**_

"**Fuck"**

**The long, lanky figure under the duvet made a low moan and stretched, the legs nearly falling over the edge of the bed. **

**A long green hand extended out of the crumpled bed sheets as the tiny black alarm bleeped, lazily waving around on the bedside table until it smacked the OFF button.**

**A tuft of grassy hair shot out of the duvet as Beast boy slowly dragged his eyes to the surface. The dark, pine-green circles blinked, confounded at the irritating little alarm.**

"**Seven forty-five? Ew…."**

**The green figure groaned, flashing a brilliant white set of fangs, and slid back under the sheet.**

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_**Start up mode - 07:48**_

_**Scanning for system documents**_

_**Thursday**_

_**Cyborg: On**_

_***Click***_

"**Nice" Cyborg smiled as he felt his system running again. All the wires along his arms tingled and he happily wiggled his feet as the metal table rose. The lights flicked on as his screens around the room came to life.**

**He glanced over -**

_** Training : Beast boy and Starfire 8:15 - obstacle, cardio.**_

_** Raven and Robin 9:45 - obstacle, combat.**_

_** Beast boy and Cyborg 10:45 - weaponry testing (Robin in centre after 11:30)**_

_** All Titans must have communicators live and active at ALL TIMES**_

_**(as requested by Jump City Security Department **__**as of 2010 and Robin of Teen Titans 2010)**_

_** Titans: To Watch. To Protect. To Defend**_

**Cyborg automatically ignored the usual regulation jargon and smirked -**

"**Ha ha, B got the early shift!" he loved when Robin did that, just to spite the 'green flagpole' - as Cyborg lovingly referred to him as. 'Green Machine' was another one, or 'Granola' -nicely used whenever he had a girly fit about meat oil left on frying pans or the lack of salads on a menu.**

**Weaponry with Gar though - nice. Whenever B and him were left in the weaponry room for a few minutes, some serious bro-time sh****it went down. Not that Robin was a drag or anything, but damn, when he started on about 'safety equipment' and bugged him for 'test recordings' it ripped all the fun right out of him and Beast Boy playing with lazers and comparing who had better boobs - Wonder woman or Miss Marvel. Cyborg sighed and reached for the remote, flicking off the reminder screen.**

**Weaponry **_**testing**_** - what was that about? I mean, him and Gar were usually put in for weaponry **_**practise**_**. He couldn't help but feel slightly excited. Chances were that if Beast Boy was being asked to come along for a testing session, then **_**he**_**was probably the one that was gonna be tested on - it's not like they'd choose B over him to handle a KX 5.9 Canon Blaster, now would they?**

**He smirked again - **

**This was gonna be fucking awesome.**


	2. Morning Meditation

Well, I may as well keep going here, see what happens! I know this is an offensively short section, but I just wanted to get Raven up and about before Starfire got all up in her chapter. I mean we like Raven guys, lets give her her own chapter - right?

Right.

As you were :)

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"_**Azarath…metrion…zinthos.."**_

_**.**_

**Raven sighed as her energy built up around her. She could feel it encasing her, like a magnetic force field. **

**She let the pressure lean in against her and took a deep breath.**

** It grew heavier and heavier, pushing against her arms, her neck, her face. Just as it became unbearable, as if she was about to be crumpled under the force field, she threw open her eyes and the energy released itself from her with a jolt. **

**She sighed contently as her muscles completely loosened, feeling herself coming back into the room. She noted her surroundings - her large purple bed, her dark bookcase, her bedside table with her book and glasses thrown on it, and gracefully floated back down to the floor.**

**Ah, morning meditation complete. **

**She leaned back on her hands and surveyed the beautiful morning through the large windows that looked right out onto the peachy sea.**

**How peaceful.**

**Not a bad start to her day, not a bad start at all. In fact, it had _made_ her day when she read the training schedule - she was only pencilled in for one session of obstacle training, while the boys were in the centre for the morning, playing with guns and blowing holes in holograms of Slade minions. **

**(Well, Robin never stated exactly what they were, but Beast Boy and Starfire had completely agreed with her opinion that they were the same build as the clones. Seeing as Slade was long gone, maybe it was Robin's way of getting him out of his system once and for all)**

**She made a face. **

**She secretly kind of wanted to be in with the guys for weaponry. She found stuff like that quite interesting - the mechanics behind Cyborg's arm canon, how different smoke bombs can react in certain environments, but most of all, she secretly enjoyed blowing things up with methods other than her powers.**

** She remembered Vic's face when she tried target practise for the first time and they discovered she had a better aim than Beast boy.**

"**Damn! Not bad Rae!" Cyborg had whistled under his breath and applauded when she hit the hologram eight times in the left leg. Beast Boy feigned a gasp beside her - **

"**Shit, did I just get owned by a girl?" he slapped his hands onto her shoulders and shook her jokingly. "Get it Rambo!"**

**She grinned. Maybe she could sneak in for a few minutes for a look. It's not like she had anything else to do, except a few notes on the last enchantments book she read.**


	3. The Morning Session

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"_Gooooood morning Jump City! Hope you're ready to get out there and start your day, cus', well, me and Frank ssuuuuurrrreee are - aren't we Frank?"_

"_That's right Mack, and to get you sleepyheads outta bed, here's a classic get-the-hell-out-of-bed hit, James Brown's 'I Feel Good' - Wake up, Jump City!"_

The sleepy Tameranian girl under the bright pink quilt giggled and brushed a waft of silk pink hair from her eyes. She swung her long legs over the side of the bed and sat up, watching the rising sun outside her window.

"Good morning, ever-amusing men of the radio!"

She smiled and cheerfully hopped off her heart-shaped bed. Breezily throwing her pyjamas off and onto the floor, she climbed into the shower. She quickly scrubbed at her never-ending waves of hair while humming along to James Brown, which played through the walls of her bathroom.

She was washed and ready in under two minutes - a routine she had perfected over the course of almost five years of being suddenly called to action, any time of day, or night. Starfire preferred to spend most of her preparation time on perfecting her make-up, or straightening her hair. But before she began her work, she sat at her dresser and flicked on her small, beadazzled PC tablet, which she had customised herself - 'Kori' was written on the back in shining blue sequins that had been glued on with dedicated precision. She gasped in delight at Robin's planned training schedule -

"Glorious! A morning with Garfield, my friend!"

She launched into humming again as she threw her hair into it's training style - a huge messy ponytail secured by a glittering blue bobbin. Kori ran to her dresser and scooped up her favourite tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt, then took her Juicy Couture hot pink hoodie from the hook on the back of her door. She swapped her uniform with her workout gear gracefully, threw on her sneakers and floated, still humming happily, out the electronic sliding door.

Beast boy's room was just down the corridor - he could friggin' hear James Brown in his sleep. That meant Star was up, which meant she had the morning session of training, which meant he could too. He rolled over in his tousled sheets, trying to catch what sleep he could before -

"Garfield! Friend, it is morning, a wooonderful morning!"

_Knock knock_

"Blleeeuurrrgh - _OKAY_ Star, one minute,…ya big morning person!"

"Hee hee!" Starfire jumped up and down excitedly as the doors slid open. Gar sat up on his bed, wearing only his grey Hollister sweatpants, and rubbed at his face.

"So…what are we doing today, sunshine?" he croaked in his husky morning voice.

Four years ago, around the age of 17, Beast boy had undergone a serious growth spurt - his once squeaky rasping voice was blended down into a smooth low register, now only with a more attractive gravel-ish sound, that was present when he lowered his voice, or whined to Cyborg - or, and this was increasingly rare, when Gar was being serious, or sombre.

He had shot up in height over the last few years, and was now easily 6ft, and looked down at the content Tameranian, when he pulled himself out of bed. He had somehow built up muscularly as well from training, and from the force that shape-shifting at high speed put on every muscle in his body. He was thankful he didn't turn into a tank like Cyborg, his vegan diet kept him nice and slim, his muscles seemed nicely toned and subtle - something Star and Raven had noted among themselves while playing "Marry, kiss, kill" on a long T-jet journey to England.

Starfire glanced up and she tall green figure in front of her and smiled at his pine green hair which stuck out in childlike tufts over his forehead. She expertly swished it out of his eyes and steered him towards his overflowing wardrobe -

"The training of obstacles and cardiovascular activities!"

"Eeeeew!" He playfully groaned and allowed Star to lead him over. He picked up a random shirt from the pile - a Sum 41 white t-shirt - grabbed some deodorant, sprayed himself (and Starfire for good measure, who squealed and stood outside his door laughing) - and slipped the shirt over his head. They began strolling down the corridor towards the elevator.

"Will you not be able to do the shape shifting in your attire?" Starfire blinked "Or do you wish to start with cardiovascular training this morning?"

"Meh, think I'll start with cardio" Gar ran a hand through his hair and hit the button on the wall "My uniforms in the training locker room from yesterday anyway, I can grab it later"

"Of course!" Starfire smiled and nodded as the doors shut and the elevator gently began moving downwards "or, how do you say it?"

Gar smiled with his brilliant set of fangs - his eyes seemed to brighten -

"Oh, dude, it's um - aight!"

"aight.." She furrowed her brow. Gar bit his lip so he wouldn't laugh -

"It means 'alright' in gangster" Starfire's delicate pink brows drew closer together, Gar looked at her encouragingly.

"a…aight" she spoke uncertainly in her soft girly voice. It sounded like a Disney princess had just said it - she laughed at herself, Gar threw back his head and laughed with her.

"It's ok, girl, I'll make a gangsta outta you yet!"

The happy chuckling could be heard echoing in the elevator shaft as they slowly descended.

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As the doors slid open, a lanky, spectacle-wearing man strode towards them in a black lab coat, His long ginger hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, which went halfway down his back. His slim freckled face, with slight stubble around the chin, smiled at Beast boy as he fist-bumped him.

"Morning, fucktard" he smirked jokingly at Beast boy. Beast boy returned the glance -

"Morning, baby!" the two chuckled and Gar sauntered past the man, punching him playfully in the gut as he went towards the gym equipment. The man turned to Starfire and immediately blushed - he scratched his head -

"Hey…Kori…what's up?"

"Oh, all is most certainly well, thank you friend Adam!" She chirped, flashing him a perfect white smile and flew softly past him. The man almost staggered back at the beautiful wave of pink ponytail and sweet smelling perfume that hit him as she floated past.

"Good to hear, Star…." He smiled to himself.

"Hey yo, Lover boy - can you rig up the performance counter-thingy for us?" Gar barked happily from the treadmill at the far end of the huge centre.

The man rolled his eyes and chuckled, secretly cursing his friends ability to take the piss out of any successful flirting he had with the gorgeous Starfire.

"Alright Beast Girl, keep your yoga pants on!" He laughed and Gar happily accepted the successful comeback with a smirk and hearty laugh.

Adam Mitch had been working for the Titans as their personal technician, and otherwise all-round superhero expert, since they had kindly taken him on after he proved himself worthy in one of their last attempts to crush Slade almost five years ago.

Under the name 'Control Freak', he had helped them crack the security code of Slade's lair, and had then decided to join in on the following fight, taking out ten Slade-bots with his newly devised electro-shocker hand attachment gloves.

Back then he was a spotty, obese teenager, who had spent so many years attempting to be the ultimate comic-book villain - but he never came close to that. Instead, he became increasingly let-down by the promised glamour and luxury of being a villain - constantly in jail, always on the run, treated like shit by anyone he worked with - he lost heart in it very quickly.

The Titans were saints for taking him in, after he proved to them that he was fighting for good, and he easily fit in like one of the team in only the first month - it was meant to be. In all his nerdy teenage years, Adam could never have even wished for the dream job he had now - helping superheroes train, designing new technology for Cyborg, and fixing or upgrading the almighty T-car, T-jet and the tower when under attack. Not to mention being able to play with explosives, guns and blades all day long in the centre.

Of course him and Beast boy got on like a house on fire - he had found someone who was equally as nerdy about sci-fi and comic books as he was, and he was a frickin' genuine superhero, with genuine awesome powers! Adam had flooded him and all the other Titans with questions that had bugged him for years about their gifts, and Gar was more than happy to show off his powers. Adam was the one who came up with really insane but incredible fighting moves for the Titans to develop - like Cyborg and Beast Boys awesome 'Gorilla Pancake' move - Gar, in gorilla form, would swing Cy by the ankles and launch him fist first, at high speed, at some poor villain - may not seem immediately effective, but getting hit by a tonne of clenched metal at 50 miles per hour fucks people up - Wildebeest was unconscious for a week.

"Okay guys" Adam had hopped up the steps to the control room and began keying in the passwords to start up the reading equipment - "Have fun!"


	4. Upgrades

Raven dressed in silence. She applied her moisturizer in the mirror in silence. She patted down her silk hair and plaited it in complete silence. She allowed herself to listen to her own breathing - steady, certain, calming.

She was getting into her 'zone', as Cyborg called it - back when he was a hardcore athlete, he got really into that stuff - getting your head in the right mind frame, ignoring everything else, visualising your obstacles. Once, he had noticed Raven staring blankly ahead at the metal wall on the T-jet before the final take-down of Slade. She had suddenly realised he was watching her and blinked.

"Sorry, I was just -"

"Nah" he smiled and gave her a knowing look "You're just gettin' in the zone girl, that's fine - I have to do that too sometimes - you need to get yourself ready to finish this guy off" His look turned stern then, as he locked eyes with her, nodded, then soundlessly got up and left Raven in the section of the T-jet by herself.

That was her moment with him hat she had always greatly respected. Despite all his 'booyah'-ing, Cyborg was a really a very serious, driven guy, and he was a brother to her -

"_Duuuuddeee_"

She jumped at the whining voice of Gar on the communicator beside her bed - it almost vibrated with the sound of his big voice -

"The training today is a shit-storm, be ready!"

She let out an exasperated sigh and frowned -

"Aw, great"

"Yup! Starfire's extra happy too - so ya know, try not to suffocate from her joy"

She sighed again, smirking a little this time -

"Fantastic, thanks for the warning"

"Oh and Rae? One thing I want you to do for me - "

"Mm hm?"

"Call Adam 'Lover Boy' today - just do it!"

"Christ - Gar, I'm trying to just, ya know - "

"EYE OF THE TIGER RAVEN! EYE OF THE TIGAAA!" his voice faded away as his communicator went back into his pocket.

She was stuck in that horrible emotional mess of being pissed at Gar for shattering her 'zone' and trying not to smirk at his stupid, random communicator rants. She took a deep breath, grabbed her blue cloak and transported to the training centre.

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_**[Earlier that day]**_

"So , Adam - we good to go?" Dick couldn't help but show the slight nerves in his voice as he tried to take an authoritative stance behind the large screen where his trusted technician was seated. Adam ignored Robin's unease and took a last quick glance over his new settings -

"Yep, seems good here, boss!"

He could sense Robin regaining his composure a bit.

"Hmm" he pursed his lips together as he watched the computer updating "Good, thanks Adam"

"No prob - should be a great challenge for them, if they get it"

"Hmm"

Adam waited for Robin's final comment, one last appraisal before he marched out to prepare himself for the day.

The clock read 6:30am. The first morning session in the training centre was scheduled for 8:15am - so Adam needed at least an hour and a half to reboot the systems to install Robin's new concept of training. That meant sorting out all the machinery on the obstacle course, having a couple of testers with holograms, and making sure the computer was documenting everything okay.

He just needed the almighty leader to get the hell out and stop fussing over everything.

Silence. This meant Robin was calculating each and every millisecond of the plan in his head, checking for any flaws he could have made. This was the killer part of him asking Adam to install any new training course, which usually had to be done every two months or so, so the Titans wouldn't be breezing through every training session - plus, the courses got tougher and tougher each time, to hone each individual Titans skills.

"Hmm" Robin scratched his chin as the update completed "What do you mean by - 'if they get it'?"

Great.

"Well" Adam straightened up in his chair "It's an awesome concept - it's just some of them might be… weirded out by it"

"Like, Garfield?" Robin came around to lean on Adams chair and look at him.

"Nope - not necessarily. Like, Raven, maybe, cus I mean, you've all had to fight her before"

"Hmm" his eyes narrowed in thought "You think she'll take it that were training to be ready if…there was a replay of past events?"

"Like the Trigon stuff? Well, yeah I guess!" Adam watched as Robin began staring fiercely at the screen.

Shit - he had got him procrastinating again.

He exhaled and flopped back in his black leather swivel chair -

"Pffft - Raven's a big girl - you know her Robin, she won't care. Plus, she'll probably be the only one to actually _understand_ what you're at with this idea - hey, she may even respect it!"

"Yeah" Robin tapped his hand agitatedly on the desk .

Silence.

Adam held his breath.

"That's great - thank you, Adam" - the hand disappeared from the side of his chair.

"Cool, see you on the floor later" Adam looked back as Robin swiftly left the control room they had been working in, situated above the training centre.

Adam sighed with relief and mentally prepared himself to go update the gigantic system.

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_._

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_._

"Morning, Raven" Robin smiled and nodded as a black vortex morphed into a slender, grey-skinned woman beside him.

Raven let down her hood, revealing her startling lilac-purple eyes and returned the smile -

"Good morning"

"I hope you're ready for this" Robin smirked as they strolled towards the machines.

"A new system?" Raven glanced over at him "It's never phased me before to be honest"

"I'm sure"

Now Raven was smirking. Robin was the best person to do training with - they were both incredibly serious when it came to work, and Robin was perfect for good fight-talk beforehand to get her properly riled-up. There was a stronger energy off him today though - she could sense it - much more anticipation, electricity.

"You've enjoyed making this one" she looked at him, then at the large brightly-lit window of the control room, where Adam's ginger head was barely visible.

"You could say that"

"Morning, Raven" the speakers boomed as a hand shape waved from the ginger blob in the distance. She smiled -

"Hi, Adam" she nodded slightly.

"Just…brace yourself" Robin sneered and hopped onto his set platform of the course.

"Huh" she rolled her eyes so the men could see, and sauntered to her position where her obstacle course began.

"Okay" the speakers echoed "One…two…three"

The centre fell into darkness for a few seconds, then was illuminated again by the standard red and green lights flashing across the walls to signal.

" - alright, training is live, computer systems up - go"

The obstacle course was strange to say the least. There were aspects of it that greatly unsettled her, but she knew straightaway what Robin had created -

A course that had subtly worked-in the attack modes of the other Titans.

She dodged large hammers of metal and lazers - Cyborg. She had barely managed to slide out of the advancing claws of a robotic machine - Beast Boy. She had to swoop around in circles to avoid blasts of blinding heat from a hidden gun - Starfire. And, strangely enough, she had to work around swinging beams under an unbelievably thick layer of black smoke, which she felt was her. She landed gracefully at the other end of the course - shook, but relieved.

The first go at any new system is nerve-racking, but this was particularly unsettling.

"Six minutes, eight seconds" the speakers concluded, and the lights in the arena went up. She looked over as Robin strode towards her, panting. Clearly, he had once again finished his course before her - well, he had the advantage of knowing every single obstacle.

"Well?" he smiled, and wiped away his hair from his sweating brow.

"Um..it was good, I guess" Raven blinked - she wasn't sure what to think of it yet. "It was -"

"A little different" His began to catch his breath more "I suppose you know what I'm getting at today"

"I do" she rolled her shoulders and neck and began walking with him towards the water cooler near the elevator doors.

"And?" he continued to look at her.

She thought to herself as she poured herself a plastic cup of water.

"Well, I understand the idea" she shrugged "I don't see the real point in it, but I get it" the coldness in her tone threw Robin a little, but he recovered, and decided it was a compliment coming from Raven, in this sense.

"It's just, we've actually been in situations where we've had to take-down one another, yet for some reason I never thought it would be useful to actually be prepared for it" he watched her carefully for her reaction. She sipped her water quietly and looked at him to continue.

He knew he had Raven's support now, she would have left the room in a cloud of darkness otherwise.

"The other teams have made sure to cover it on their protocol - The Doom Patrol, The Justice League - everyone! I thought it would be useful for us too. I just hope it's not too disturbing"

"No, you're right" Raven smiled encouragingly "That explains why Beast Boy said it was tough today"

Robin suddenly looked concerned

"He didn't think it was some sort of dig about the Terra incident - did he?"

Raven paused, then suddenly chuckled, remembering her conversation with him that morning -

"Not at all - you need to stop over analysing things Robin, he just felt the course was tough, he didn't let slip any of your plans, which was right of him, I suppose"

Robin's shoulders relaxed -

"Good - I have to get Cyborg on board later, but first - "

He leaned on the cooler and playfully raised an eyebrow "did you notice you didn't have to face me on that course?"

Raven could feel her smile creeping onto her face again as she realised she was pencilled in for combat at the same time as Robin.

"Huh - this should be good!" she smirked.

"Ha! Please!" Robin reached back and grabbed his staff and spun it expertly in front of Raven's face

"You haven't seen nothing yet!"


	5. Dudes with Weapons

Cyborg tried not to run to Gar's room as soon as the digital clock on his wrist screen turned 10:30 and the reminder notice popped up:

_Weaponry testing with B_

He smirked -

"Awww yeaaah baby!"

He slammed his laptop down and sprinted to the security alarm system near his door - in a flash he had keyed in the lock code and slipped out as the electronic doors clicked shut.

He had taken about four steps when he saw B's lanky shadow approaching around the corner. Gar had been coming from the main living room and could now hear Cy clunking along in the corridor towards him - his elf ears automatically pricked up, and he ran around the corner to meet a just as excited Cyborg.

"DUDE!" He laughed as he bounded up to him "Let's go blow shit up!"

"Aah haha!" Cyborg high-fived his tall green friend with gusto "Aw Maan, I needed this!"

They both started speed walking to the elevator.

Gar rolled his eyes "Yeesh, dude I know - we've been doing that obstacle crap for aaagges!"

"Ha ha! I mean, of course there's only so much shape shifting you can do right?"

Beast Boy chuckled -

"Pfft oh yeah bro, and there's only so much ass-whooping you can hand out before you hurt yourself, it's only right we get a little explosion session!" he rubbed his hands together. Cyborg hit the button to open the doors and they stepped in-sync into the lift. There was a pause.

"Dibs on any machine guns!" Cyborg smiled smugly to himself. Beast Boy punched the air -

"Dammit! Everytime!"

The lift began descending. Cyborg could sense Gar fidgeting in his updated white uniform with purple shoulders a bit - his sneakers brushed off the floor, something he had started to do when he was nervous.

He frowned at his best friend -

"You think they're gonna test on you today, don't you?" he raised an eyebrow at Gar.

"Ugh, dude it's just.." He looked away from Cy to his reflection in the mirror beside him "Robin's new training plan, it's…ugh…I don't know if I should say what it is yet, cus you haven't been in the centre for practice"

"Oh really?" Cy was a little worried now, he had never seen Gar get shook up over something as insignificant as a training plan - he only freaked out at big things - a member of the group getting injured, seeing dead or massacred animals on the motorway and on the street, or when he morphed into 'The Beast' for too long and had to avoid looking at meat for a day, like he was afraid 'The Beast' would get a craving or something…

"It's just…"

Gar sighed - Cyborg would've warned him if it was the other way around - he owed him a warning.

"He's kinda setting us against each other - well not really, but the obstacle course this morning was pretty much all of our most vicious attack traits worked into the training" he ran his hand through his messy hair and looked at the ground.

Cyborg recoiled a bit

"Um - what?" his brows knitted together and Gar looked up at him sadly.

"Yeah bro, Rob said it was 'protocol' or something, like, the other teams know how to take-on each other if it came to it"

"That's a little messed up.." he began running through Robin's reasoning behind it in his head.

"Yeah, I know right?" Beast Boy frowned "But ya know what? I can kinda see where he's coming from..it's just, if that's his theme for the next two months, I am sooo gonna be shot at today.." he winced and turned pale.

Cyborg smiled at him -

"Yeah, no offence B, but you're kinda screwed bro!"

"aw duuuddddeee!" Beast Boy groaned and leaned against the wall as the elevator slowed down.

Cyborg patted his shoulder -

"Don't worry man, I'll try and shoot for the legs instead of the face - aight?" he laughed at his friends increasing horror.

"AW DUDE THAT IS NOT FUNNYYY!"

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Adam watched as Cyborg and Beast Boy entered the training centre. He smiled and whistled under his breath at Beast Boy's expression -

"Oh, he knows what's up" he muttered to himself as he sat back in the chair and began tapping buttons.

"Adam?" He heard Gar croak from the arena "What, uh.. is this?"

"This, Granola, is a cannon-electro tazer gun, version 500" Cyborg happily declared as he strolled over to the weapon placed neatly in the centre of the arena.

Gar felt weak already - he took a deep breath and steadied himself -

"Dude… .life."

"Now now" Adam entered from the steel door to the stairs that led to the control room "No one said it was being tested on you"

"What? I didn't even suggest that!" Gar gasped and half-collapsed onto the concrete beam behind him "Oh my god, this is really happening" he started breathing heavily.

"I wouldn't worry Gar, you've taken bullets to the shin before and survived" Cy tried to look reassuring, Gar glared at him as his breathing got quicker.

"Exactly dude, BULLETS! I _heal_ from bullets! You get shot, it goes through you - boom, done. But electrocution? That's different!" he stared at the canon in horror.

Cyborg couldn't help but feel bad for him - ever since he had accidentally discovered his friend had regenerating aspects to his DNA, they _had_ to see what he was capable of doing.

It had happened one night after a battle with one of Slade's friends - some scumbag called Marty, who'd been smuggled from a mental institution in a nearby city. He had worshipped Slade nearly all his life in that hospital - he and the other 'highly dangerous' patients had followed his attacks on the news, tried to convince others to join their group, and had gotten in touch with an arms distributor in Jump City prison, all under Slade's clever urging - Robin referred to the group as a 'cult'.

When Slade had freed him and his followers from the institution, they had taken to the streets with every weapon under the sun - chainsaws, knives, hammers, flamethrowers - everything, all under their 'masters' orders. But this one guy, Marty, was in such good cahoots with the arms distributor, he had managed to talk his way into Slade granting him a gun. A gun. Of all people, only Slade would be twisted enough to let a psychopath loose in Jump City with a damn gun.

They had just wiped out a fleet of twenty Slade-bots, him and Gar. But this was way more difficult then it usually was - the gang would come at them in between the waves of bots, with meat cleavers and blow torches. They obviously got a few cuts and gashes on their arms, and had to fight these guys off while kicking away the robots - it was exhausting and insane.

Cy had just thrown off one of the last Slade bots from his shoulders to deal with some idiot running towards him with a knife, and he could sense Gar behind him ready to take the robot and finish it for him. In perfect sync, Gar morphed into a T-Rex just as the bot flew over Cyborg, whipping the Slade-bot with his powerful tail - the thing snapped in half and crashed to the ground, wires fizzling everywhere.

The gunshot came out of nowhere, just as Cyborg was slamming his knife-wielding lunatic into the ground. He quickly turned around as Gar suddenly flitted back to human form and lost consciousness.

"Oh shi-" he took a step towards his friend when Marty appeared from an alleyway, pointing his gun at Cyborg.

"Not so powerful now - eh, Victor?"

That had irked him - only Slade knew their real names, he had told his men to use them to piss the team off.

And it worked.

Cyborg flawlessly lifted his canon arm and nearly blew Marty halfway across the block. His body flew into the concrete wall like a rag doll. He twitched a few times, then became still, - the gun rested where Cyborg had blasted him from.

He looked over at Gar - he wasn't moving.

"Gar?" he knelt down, trying not to panic. He had been trained to attend to gunshot wounds, he couldn't screw up just because it was Beast Boy lying there.

He tried to find the wound - he touched near Beast Boy's collarbone to the right, nope, no reaction or pain to any bullet lodged in his back.

"Okay" he tried to calm himself, remain focused on the job. He glanced at Gar's leg and saw the blood slowly oozing out of the area below the knee - ouch, the tibia. He pressed the pumping wound.

"Dude…ow?…" Gar lifted his head and studied the wound bleary-eyed.

"Yeah, thought you'd say that" with Gar awake, he calmed down a little, the bullet hadn't penetrated anything too serious. He looked at Gar's eyes, which seemed to be loosing focus.

"Hold on, this might hurt a little more.." he apologised and quickly dug out the bullet.

"SON OF A -" Gar sat upright and stared awestruck at his bloody leg.

That was when it happened.

His emerald eyes went into some sort of strange trance - the pupils shrunk to just tiny black dots - reminding cyborg of the time his eyes did that when he clawed at him before turning into the beast. The then teenage boy fell silent.

"Um, you okay man?" Cyborg tapped his face a little, thinking Gar had gone into shock.

"No…" he continued to stare at the wound. Cyborg turned back to it, and his jaw dropped to the ground.

The muscle was slowly, but very surely, moving. The two sides of the gash were drawing back together, moulding with each other, to form back into smooth, green skin.

"What the…" Cyborg stared in disbelief, Gar just whimpered and passed out again.

_Ah, Titan memories._

Cyborg now glanced over at the tall 20-year-old figure of Beast Boy leaning against the pillar, on the verge of hyperventilation.

"Man, relax, you got this" Cyborg winked and went back over to the canon for a better look.

Gar had dealt with worse things in his life - over the course of the last four years, he had taken one bullet to the lung, one to the diaphragm (which _really_ hurt) and a stab wound to the shoulder, all of which he had healed under a couple of hours, under lots and lots of Cyborg's awesome painkillers. The only catch to the whole thing was that the object that caused the tear in the muscle, the bullet or knife, had to be removed so the tissue could connect up again.

It was kept respectfully as a Titan secret - like their own hidden weapon. Of course some villains twigged, and went trigger crazy at Beast Boy, but they were usually defeated, were in prison now, and ranting away to the officers like mad men.

Cyborg began testing the canon on the designated wall opposite. He felt the weight of the canon for a moment, then let his hand rest on the trigger. He studied the dial - just the numbers 1 to 3. He set it to 1 and aimed. As soon as he pressed the trigger it let out huge blasts of electric orbs, bright blue and sizzling. On impact with the wall they burst into long veins of electricity, which began seeping out like vines along the side, until they fizzled out.

"Dang!" he laughed and looked at Adam, who was proudly beaming at his newest product. "Where did you come up with this?"

"Well, the last canon, the 300 x-pro, was great at shutting down moving vehicles, like tanks" he patted the rim of the canon "But this thing, Vic, is developed to stop _any_ moving object…or um, creature"

Cyborg tried not to smirk at the long whine that escaped Beast Boy in the distance.

"Wow, that's amazing"

"Yeah, _genius - real_ nice of you, Adam"

Gar sighed and slid down the pillar to sit on the floor.

"So, that's what the vines are for?" Cyborg asked as he began twiddling the dial again, Adam aimed it at the wall for him.

"Yep! They move to get every part of the target - to really seize it up"

"AW MAAAN!" Beast Boy's head dropped between his knees.

"Calm down, Gar , you'll be fine!" Cyborg called over his shoulder.

"Pfft! Easy for you to say - almighty executioner!" He groaned "I mean seriously guys.."

He pushed himself off the pillar and went over to the canon and tapped it.

"That thing is a monster! How much voltage are we talking about here?"

Adam pondered over it for a second -

"Umm…about -"

"Whoah, Adam!" Cyborg interrupted, locking his huge hand over Adam's mouth "You're _really_ better off not telling him"

"Jesus" Gar looked at the cracks forming on the wall and swayed a little "I don't wanna know on second thought"

They jumped at the swoosh of the electronic doors sliding open.

"Um, morning guys" Robin sauntered into the arena, ignoring the fact that Adam was in a headlock and that Gar was now a very light green. They broke apart and composed themselves.

"Adam , have you filled them in?" Robin reached them, deadpan serious, hands behind his back.

"Yup! Well, they pretty much guessed it" he shrugged and glanced at Beast Boy, who had started breathing heavily again.

"Right" Robin nodded, stern. "Gar, I know this isn't great, but I need peace of mind that we have something that can -"

"Yeah I know, I know" He waved his hand, still pale. "I just hope you know what you're doing Rob"

"Well, yeah.." Robin looked back at Adam "This thing could have the potential to stop some pretty large forces - I know Cinderblock and Plasmus are long gone, but Adam developed this to take down things that aren't stopped by bullets"

"Yeah, I got that" Gar muttered darkly, then stretched his arms over his head "Guys, can we just get this over with?"

He decided he should go for the biggest animal he could morph into - Cyborg suggested that the larger force he was, the less he'd feel it. As he stood in front of the canon, he began running through the list in his head:

- _ok, T-Rex…elephant… a whale isn't an option here, and 'The Beast'. _

He took a few deep breaths - which would lessen the overall impact?

_Probably the T-Rex at this point._

_Oh god._

_Yup._

A few more deep breaths. He looked at the rings of light heating up on the canon.

"Ok" he nodded and closed his eyes, allowing the image of the gigantic creature to form in his mind.

His body reacted the way it always did - his muscles unravelled effortlessly, he bones began morphing, he leant forward to accommodate the shapeshift, and he became the animal.

All of this took place in a split second.

Cyborg grimaced and pressed the trigger.

The second the orb hit the T-Rex, Beast Boy snapped out of it - his whole body cracked back into human form in a painful lurch, and he collapsed to the floor, unable to breathe - the electric veins ripped into his arms, along his legs, around his neck, into his lungs - they encased his whole being.

Apparently he blacked out, because he woke up lying on the floor, gasping. All his muscles were aching and weak. His vision was blurred, and large shapes moved in front of his eyes.

"Phew! Okay, he's breathing guys - he's alright" Adam's voice echoed. "Gar, you okay?"

As his vision sharpened, he saw Robin standing over him. He was deep in thought. The eyes in his mask narrowed -

"Yeah, that definitely works, Beast Boy - good work" he disappeared from his view.

Gar took another gasp of air -

"Huh…thanks" he croaked.

"Okay, now.." Robin's voice rang around the arena "Cyborg? You ready?"

Beast Boy couldn't help the smile that spread across his face -

"Payback - _sweet"_


	6. Go Go Gadget!

"_Uuggghhh"_

Cyborg had barely made it to his room before collapsing onto his slab of a table under the automatic floodlights - the training had been a million times more horrific than he had expected.

As if seeing a T-Rex being reduced to a twitching unconscious mess after a canon blaster didn't freak him out enough, Robin didn't show one bit of sympathy for the twisted battles he was putting his team through, talking openly about what could take down Cyborg : a tank, Starfire's bolts (turns out ten were needed to be precise, they used the simulator on him in the arena…Gar got to press the button) Robin's special electrocuting device that shut down any electrical machine, and Raven's nasty-ass paralysis spell (which was only agreed on in theory, Robin didn't want to test that particular one, as the team knew Raven could only use very dark magic in emergencies)

He grimaced as he slowly stretched his legs out on the cold steel and blinked at the lights above.

"I don't see _him_ letting us blow his ass up, knockin' him out!" he muttered as he closed his eyes.

He sighed -

"Aight, computer - sort this out, 588 recovery mode, thanks"

The mechanical arms that shot up from the floor got to work quickly - Cyborg angrily listed the damages in his mind -

"_Disconnection to the arm wire…outer layer of metal sliced on shoulder blade…trauma to the right ear…scuffed ma god damn new paint job on the ankle…fracture to the radar tracker.."_

"Huh….thanks, Robin" he huffed as a wire was jammed into his upper arm.

It was comforting to know B was just as fucked up after his session - his eyes never properly regained focus, he seemed to grimace when he walked around the centre, then he threw up in the bathrooms of the locker room. He was now in the main living room watching TV with Raven, an ice-pack on his head.

"Hmm" Cyborg smirked - seemed funny that Gar would hang with Rach while recovering from an ass-kicking, but Raven did have a weird calming vibe about her when people were injured or pissed off - what did she say that time?

- Oh yeah, that when people with low energies enter the room, they begin to suck the happy energy from the area, so her powers automatically go into energy recovery mode - her presence works on calming and healing each energy in the room.

Something like that, anyway. Plus, she usually allowed Gar to whine while she smirked silently - girl seemed to find B amusing when he got stroppy about something. There was something awesome about B and Rae - Cyborg always found them insane to watch - their constant jibes and teasing at one another, Raven's fantastic deadpan comebacks, Gars bold tendency to punch her arm playfully and read over her shoulder - ying and yang. And he knew, that some day, somewhere -

They were gonna fuck the brains out of each other.

He laughed out loud then, now not feeling as bad when he thought of the hilarious pairings that had grown over the last few years.

The Robin and Starfire saga - madly in love, happy for a few months, then, boom, break it off because 'Robin's work was affected' - silence at breakfast for a couple of months, only broken by Gar and him talking about the game that had been on last week, then woop-dee-doo, back together for a few more wonderful, amazing, sickly-romantic months.

Poor Star, she was like a little sister to the rest of the team. No matter what their relationship status, she was always there as the dedicated 'wife' in Robin's life, by his side when he had to make difficult decisions, the only person that could comfort him, and really, the only girl anyone could see Robin with forever.

As for Cyborg? Him and Bumblebee had been on and off for a year now, and things were great between them. When the two of them had time off, they would meet between the two titans headquarters for a weekend. Karen was amazing - all attitude and sass, real sexy. Strong independent woman - leader of her team, callin' all the shots, and in no rush to settle down.

"That's ma girl" Cyborg smiled proudly to himself as he pictured Karen in her uniform, her cute little stubborn face scrunched up as he entered the door to the hotel room -

"You left the clean towels on the floor Vic - do you know what kinda waste that is?" he remembered how her hip had jutted out at the word 'waste' and chuckled under his breath.

Oh Karen…

_I should probably call her when I'm in one piece_

He nodded to himself and allowed his breathing to slow and deepen, until he happily fell asleep as the machinery fixed him up, like it always did.

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"Ow"

"Gar, shut up"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I am interrupting the '_massacre_' channel?" The long green arm reached around Raven's thin shoulders and a massive hand plucked the remote out of her grasp. She turned to frown at Beast Boy but froze at the big white set of fangs smiling proudly at her. Beast Boy leaned back into the couch and began flicking with the hand that wasn't holding a huge ice-pack to his head -

"Okay, I know you love watching obese chefs frying hacked-up animals" He glanced at her as he clicked repeatedly "But lets watch something that doesn't make me want to projectile all over the couch, okay? I'm a little woozy today, dear." he let the pack flop down beside him.

Raven smirked and raised an eyebrow -

"Like what? _People_ hacking each other up?" she grimaced at the war film Gar had lingered on.

"Yup" he slid down further on the couch and let his mop of hair fall over his eyes. The grin spread on his face.

Raven picked up the ice pack and threw it onto his chest - Beast Boy feigned a choke and laughed.

"Ooowwww - Raveeennn"

he whined playfully and sunk further into the couch and closed his eyes, the full impact of his morning electrocution hitting him.

His head was still throbbing in a constant rhythm. Beside him, he could sense Raven becoming still. She hadn't bothered to switch channels - Gar could guess she was doing her 'deep in thought' stance - sitting upright, strong, big deep blue eyes gazing sadly at nothing, soft velvet hair that smelled like incense lying on her shoul -

_Whoah - hey!_

He shook himself out of it and opened his eyes. Through his tuft of green hair he could see her big violet eyes inspecting him closely, about two inches from his face -

"Aah!" his eyes widened and he jumped a little "Rae, Jesus - why are we going all 'silent spell caster' right now?" he sighed and raked his hair out of his eyes to compose himself.

Raven's brow furrowed - still scrutinizing the bewildered shape shifter -

"What did you think of the training today." she didn't even make the end of the sentence higher, like most normal people do when asking a question - she had asked in flat monotone seriousness.

She was worked up about it - Gar could tell. When Rae was intense about anything she didn't have time to worry about how scary she could be, or show any comforting emotions. She was doing the whole 'I'm staring into your soul because I want your opinion' thing on him. He blinked, then feigned nonchalance.

Gar shrugged -

"Meh, seriously shitty of Robin" He couldn't help but glance at his right hand, which had been doing a little twitch every few minutes since the electrocution, then his dark green eyes travelled down his leg and up along Raven's seated figure to her face - this snapped her out of her hardcore stare, and she relaxed her expression a little.

"What did you have to do?" He locked eyes with her, his voice lowering to his natural gravel tone and suddenly Raven felt a little flutter in her chest. She fidgeted with the sleeves on her leotard -

_Ignore it….ignore his pretty eyes…stop it….oh wow…_

"Um...I did the course…and um, fought Robin" she mentally kicked herself for sounding distracted by the gaze of Beast Boy.

_Shit - he's gonna notice….shit…_

To her surprise, he suddenly broke into his famous white-fanged smile and clapped excitedly -

"You got to beat up Robin?" He fell back on the couch and laughed "That is _awesome_!"

Raven forced herself to make an attempt at smiling with him - her mind still reeling in relief he hadn't picked up on her nerves.

He leaned forward, much more animated than before -

"_Pleassse _tell me you kicked his ass!"

She smirked -

"Just about"

"Niiiceee!" this seemed to have cheered him up to no end, the colour had come back to his cheeks, his eyes were lit up and sharp. He stretched out on his back across the couch, now that Raven was sitting across from him on the coffee table and rubbed at his eyes -

"I mean, even if me or you _did_ lose control" he rolled his eyes "How hard would we actually be to stop?"

He stared idly at the vast beams on the ceiling of the main room.

"The whole team together would kick our asses!" he laughed.

Raven shuddered uncomfortably as images of her - red eyes, those markings, her father, Jump city in ruins - flashed through her mind.

"Yeah" she flatly agreed. Detecting her mood, Gar suddenly swung up from the couch and grabbed her arms playfully.

"Rawwwr bitch - Beast mode!" he shook her a little and she couldn't help but chuckle -

"Gar, get off me!" she tried to gently wriggle out - only very few people had gotten that physically close to her, and she let him away with it - she had known him for so long.

And his grip was so firm…and strong. She glanced at his biceps as he wrapped his arms around her - she was suddenly encased in muscley warmth. His hair tickled her chin.

"Nom nom nom!" he swayed her side to side a little. She somehow allowed her hands to shoot to her waist where Gar's were strongly knitted together -

"Gar!" she laughed "Stop!"

She was supposed to separate them, but when she grabbed his large green hands, the sudden shiver of excitement she felt threw her off. Gar seemed to have felt it too, she could feel his body relaxing slightly, but he kept his arms confidently locked around her.

"Whatcha gonna do?" He smirked.

She shivered at the tingle of his breath on her neck.

She blinked for a moment, locked in his warm, strong embrace.

Then smiled -

"Well…" she suddenly swung around and for a brief moment she was nose-to-nose with him, then to his surprise she threw his arms over her head and expertly pulled his right arm behind his back.

"Dammit!" Gar chuckled and his head bowed in defeat.

"Never mind the _team_ kicking your ass!" she smirked devilishly and let him go. They looked at each other shyly as they chuckled under their breath, Gar rubbing his arm, when the electronic doors swung open.

"Be ready, kids!" Adam waved his arm as he sauntered over to the coffee machine, ignoring the sexual tension between the two and how close they stood together "Apparently that little shit Gizmo is acting up again!"

Gar immediately sighed and let his shoulders sag -

"Uggghhh, why does he even _bother_ anymore?"

Raven regained her seriousness and shot him a look -

"Because he's determined to put his new technology to use!" she cast her eyes over to Adam who nodded in agreement "Gizmo lives in constant denial that he's good enough to take us on with silly mechanic tentacles and lazers"

Gar straightened up -

"Well I've had enough lazers for one day, thanks. Maybe it's noth-"

He was cut off by the blaring alarms and flashing lights that suddenly errupted around the tower.

"Aw maaann!"

"_TITANS - GIZMO IS AT JUMP CITY BANK AND ARMED, NO CIVILIAN INJURIES - YET!"_

Gar and Raven sprang into their usual response - they ran from the main room, separating when Raven went ahead to the basement where the T-car was parked, Gar to his room to throw on his uniform. He looked back as they split -

"I'll go by wings - you guys take the car ahead of me!"

Raven nodded and teleported into an orb of black smoke.

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Robin snapped his bo-staff into his utility belt and glanced out the window as the T-car passed over the city's bridge -

"Okay, were nearing the main street. Everyone out and split at the end of the bridge - we don't want Gizmo to have us all neatly packed together in a car for easy aim. Cyborg -"

"I'll bring this baby over" Cyborg happily patted the steering wheel "Just make sure you guys don't let him take a shot at it"

He then waved out the window at the green eagle that had caught up with the car and was now flying over it.

"Okay, we got Gar"

"Good" Robin whipped out his communicator, which the titans had since remodelled. Instead of the yellow and black, the communicator was now pure black rubber, with a black T outlined by shining silver metal.

"Adam, any updates we should know about?"

"Hold on!" there was rapid typing in the distance "He's taken a few shots at the policemen - we've got two down with burns, don't know how serious, but they're conscious and speaking"

Robin growled under his breath.

"Okay, thanks, were on route now"

The communicator snapped shut as they slowed down at the end of the bridge. Cyborg pulled in expertly and let the others bundle out.

"Star - keep an eye on me, aight?" Cyborg gave her a thumbs up as he pulled away and she nodded happily.

"Of course, friend Cyborg!" she looked at Robin as she began to float up "Yes?"

"Yep, that's good Starfire" he nodded sternly "We'll all rendevouz at the bank, no one is to move in until I say" with confirmation, the tameranian shot into the air to follow the car.

"I'll come at him from West street" Beast Boy spoke from behind him

"Yep!" Robin called back as there was a flutter of feathers and the green eagle swept over his head and darted into the city.

Robin turned to Raven, who, as always, was calmly waiting for his order, her hood pulled up as her violet eyes waited intently.

"Raven" He smiled "A lift into the city - if that's ok?"

Without hesitation, a black orb engulfed the two, and they disappeared.

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It was always windier on the top of buildings in Jump City, and Robin loved that.

It was refreshing, it woke him up a bit more before he swooped down on the unsuspecting villain below wielding a gun.

He and Raven paused for a moment to survey the city.

She could practically hear the cogs turning in his head as he stood, hands on hips.

She knew there was no need to question him.

That pause held for two more seconds.

A small scream echoed in the distance.

"Okay" he walked towards the ledge of the 14 storey high building she had dropped them on. And glanced down into the street.

"Lets try the overhead advance again, I suppose - I want Beastboy coming from the right, Star from the left. Cyborg will come in when we've surrounded him and lock the canon onto Gizmo."

"Will I get us closer ?" She glanced in the direction of the scream, which seemed about four streets away as a flash of light suddenly errupted from the area.

More wails.

"Let's be careful here" Robin turned back to her a took out the communicator.

"Beast boy, can you get close enough as a fly to see what he has?"

"Yep - two seconds!"

There was a strange zap from the speaker, and the signal cut off.

Three seconds of silence.

The gravel tone voice came back -

"Rob?"

"Yeah?"

"It's some kind of heat blasting canon, a bit like Cyborg's - he seems to have it attached to his little creepy robotic system - he's got a tiny remote in his hand, I'm guessing that's the aim."

"So, he's outside the bank?"

"Yeah - seems weird, doesn't it?"

"Hmm...very"

Cyborg's booming voice suddenly jumped up -

"At the bank Rob. Still hidden. We goin' with the overhead technique?"

"Yep! Give me and Rae at least five seconds to get on the roof of the bank, when you see us go, you all go - okay Titans?"

"Got it" Beast boy signed off

*click*

"Aight" Cyborg grunted.

*click*

"Let's go, Raven " Robin nodded and took out his birdarang, ready.

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Gizmo had definitely advanced over the last four years - the guy was a genius even at 14, so now he was practically a mad scientist at 18.

Thankfully, he had gotten a bit taller, and had bulked up ever so slightly so that he didn't look like a toddler anymore.

Sure, he wasn't a tank of muscle like Cyborg, or even slightly ripped like the green fucker, but he had his machines, and years of expertise fighting the group - he knew all their stupid formations, their ticks, any sensitive spots that he could focus on - like Robin's weak ankle, which had been crushed by falling rubble in a fight with Red X - one of the only bad asses out there that had managed to properly injure Robin in a while. If Gizmo ever got to meet the mysterious Red X, he owed him a lot of thanks for giving the villains of the city something to work with.

Cyborg was easy for him - I mean, a walking computer being a threat for Gizmo? Please. He just had to keep inventing new viruses to shut down his system every time he fought him - Cyborg would go home and remove the virus, build himself up again and come back for more, and then Gizmo would send another hacking virus at him - that was how they fought, end of.

Gizmo knew what they were planning that day - another fucking overhead attack: an animal coming from the right, the ninja from the roof with explosives and the witch, then the human toaster and the alien throwing blasts from the front.

Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.

He smirked devilishly as his mechanical claw snatched up another police car and began crushing it -

But they weren't ready for his new attack.

He waited happily as the patrol cars window began to shatter and the smoke burst from the engine.

Any minute now.

There was a soft _swoosh _behind him as Robin landed gracefully on one of the mechanical claws that Gizmo stood on. He immediately braced himself for the smoke bomb and swung around, his favourite compact tazer in hand, and began jabbing into the cloud of dust that formed.

He quickly noted the low growl from his right and sent one of his claws up to block the incoming jaguar.

As he expected, none of these moves were successful.

Robin's concrete punch sent him staggering back into the path of the jaguar, which leaped over the mechanical claw and slammed into Gizmo, pulling them both off the machine and down onto the rock-hard street.

"Bastard!"

Gizmo tried to push away the bared teeth as they fell, but lost his voice when the impact of the ground winded him. For a moment the sky whirled in front of his eyes, then the jaguar was on him again, sharp claws digging into his shoulders as he was pinned down.

He smirked as he pressed his ankle into the floor, activating the knife to shoot out the front of his boot. The jaguar just about noticed the glint of metal before flipping into Garfield Logan form and jumping back from Gizmo's kick.

"Dang! Okay, that's kinda impressive" the tall green boy in the white and purple uniform raised his eyebrows as he dodged the swift kicks.

But Gizmo knew he wasn't safe yet. Sure enough, he was blasted in a painful whack of heat into the window of the store across the road.

The glass continued to shatter around him and he forced himself to get back up, his whole body already wrecked, - his shoulder had definitely been dislocated by that blast, and his wrist seemed fractured from the damn jaguar attack.

Plus his jaw was fucked after Robin.

But it would all be worth it.

He swayed and tried to regain his breath as the massive blurred figure of Cyborg strode towards him.

"You had enough, jackass?" The face of Victor Stone finally appeared from the dark light coming into the store as he easily crushed the broken glass under his feet.

"Bitch please" The teenage boy pulled himself up and glared confidently into the dark stern eyes above him.

Before he could cut Cyborg dead with a nasty one-liner, a black tentacle grabbed his ankle and dragged him rudely back into the daylight over the shards of glass. He cursed as his head whacked off the pavement.

"Dammit you stupid witch!" his stomach turned as he found himself being flipped upside down and in the air as Raven floated a short distance away from him, her eyes glowing bright red.

"I'd be more careful with words if I were you" She growled.

This was it.

Now or never.

Or Raven was gonna fucking feed him to demons or something.

He took a calming breath as he surveyed the upside-down world around him. All the Titans were within the same distance of him, waiting, tensed.

Gar stood beside Robin and frowned -

"The fuck is he doin'?"

Robin watched Gizmo reach into his belt to produce a small black box with a red button.

"Team! Get -"

But his words were cut off by the blinding light that originated where Gizmo had been dangling. The Titans were all thrown back by the suffocating heat of the bomb as it burned into their skin. Robin could even feel the heat under his eyes, though he had locked his eyelids shut as tight as he could. The world crashed into darkness as he and the other Titans slammed into the concrete.

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Silence.

Robin was face down on the ground as he started to come back to reality. His brain felt as if someone had smacked him with a sledgehammer. The street swayed horrifically as he tried to make his arms push himself up.

He flipped onto his back with great effort and sat up, blinking until he could see the damage.

Nothing.

The street was perfect.

He blinked again.

_What?…But that was a bomb…I felt it, it burned…how is the street….?_

Raven was unconscious in a tangle of blue fabric in the distance.

Gizmo seemed to have disappeared.

_What?_

The leader jumped up, then staggered a little as he twisted around to look at the street, which had been as it was before the bomb - no fires, no smoke, no cars blowing up…just the window of the shop, shattered as it was before the explosion.

"What…" Robin scratched his head as he swayed. His hand moved down to his face as he checked -

_No pain…no blood…..no burns….no bruises…_

"I….don't…." Robin muttered to himself, bemused.

Starfire.

He looked to where she had been standing. His eyes scanned the area desperately until he found her, lying on her side, a few metres away.

"Starfire!" He ran over and dropped to his knees as he inspected her arms and face for any injuries. He was taken aback again.

Nothing.

There was a crackling noise from his belt.

"Robin? Jesus, what was that, are you guys okay? Robin…. Robin?"

"Adam…" Robin regained his composure, even though he still felt faint, and spoke as calmly as he could into the communicator. "It was….a bomb….I think - some kind of bomb anyway"

He looked back over his shoulder - Gar was out cold. To the far right, Cyborg also lay unmoving.

"I don't know what it was, but everyone's unconscious" His eye caught onto the blue movement as Raven's body twitched in the distance as she painfully pushed herself up.

"Raven's coming back a bit - we need help though Adam" It was so hard to stay upright, all Robin's body wanted to do was sink back onto the floor. Raven's violet eyes blinked wearily in the distance.

The communicator crackled again -

"I'm on my way"


	7. Like, ow

Cyborg squinted at the screen as he tried to make out the figures, numbers, whatever had just come up on the search engine, that blurred in front of him.

"Vic" Robin's bare hand rested on his shoulder "Leave it - for now"

Cyborg looked up from where he was sitting, well, slouching, over the main room computer. His leader was just over the recovery process, but still had a tired demeanour as he stood watching him concernedly.

The team were all out of uniform, and dotted around the living room - Starfire lay on the couch in her pink fluffy pyjamas (including matching slippers - she looked like a very attractive pink yeti) clutching a cushion and smiling to herself at a classic episode of 'Friends', that everyone from planet earth had seen a million times - for a Tamaranian, it was brand new comedy. Raven floated over one of the raised platforms near the windows, dressed in a long blue skirt with delicate silver flats, her black hoodie yanked over her face. Cyborg knew that B was unconscious somewhere - maybe in cat form on the top shelf of a bookcase in a ball, or in a wardrobe, or as a Great Dane sprawled across a bed. As if the headache from the morning hadn't thrown him out of sorts enough, the resulting headache that everyone got from the flash bomb had floored him - Cyborg had found the strongest painkillers he could, gave him two, and told him to just sleep it off for the day.

And what a headache it was.

Think of the most horrific migraine you've ever had - dark spots in the corners of your eyes, sharp throbbing pains at your temples, a band of tension across your forehead, dizziness, chills, weakness - then multiply it by twenty - _that _was what fucked the entire team up. The bright flash of light seemed to have hit the back of their brains, they all agreed on that sensation. They all suddenly blacked out straight after, that was clear to see. The aftermath was horrific - everyone could feel that. But worst of all, and what bugged Cyborg the most, was that everyone was still too sensitive to bright light after it to get stuck into some computer work to figure out what exactly that little shit had used. Well, except Adam - but the constant drilling sensation in Cyborg's head made it torture for him to talk through the various stages of the battle in any scientific detail, and it just frustrated him to a point where he forced himself to grit his teeth and take on the glare of the screen.

"Cyborg" he frowned as Robin resorted to using his authoritative 'don't push this' tone of voice. He sighed and let his hand drop from the keyboard.

"I just don't know what that was" He said dejectedly, more to himself than Robin.

"No one does" Robin's hand left the shoulder. "But there's no point pushing yourself to find out right now, you're only making the effects worse, and it won't benefit any of the team if you don't recover properly to find out"

Cyborg's shoulders sagged.

"Yeah, you're right" He pulled himself up from the swivel chair and grimaced at the resulting throb at the back of his head "Man, when I've worked this off, I am gonna _find_ that fucker!"

Robin smirked, proud that Cyborg could always keep up his aggressive mindset - even when he was injured.

Starfire's big eyes swivelled up at Robin and Cyborg and she patted the couch for them to join. Robin looked at Cyborg and nodded towards the couch. The tank of a Titan smiled and shrugged -

"I'd love to, but I gotta go and reboot ma system, see if it helps"

Robin nodded understandingly, and watched Cyborg drag his feet out through the sliding doors, then he fell into the couch beside Starfire and confidently draped his arm around her. She buried her pink head of long hair under his arm and closed her eyes. He began absent-mindedly playing with strands as he took the remote and began flicking.

"Robin?" Her big bright pupils blinked up at him.

"Yeah?" He rested his chin on top of her pink head as he looked at her.

"What was that strange flash?" She broke the gaze, lowered her eyes and began picking at her pyjama bottoms. Before Robin could answer, she continued -

"I just feel that it was strange…not good…not safe" his heart broke at her little worried voice, and he cupped her face to bring it up to his, she twisted herself around to face him. Her sad expression made his heart dissolve altogether.

"I'm not sure" He began, then kicked himself mentally for being a shitty consoler "I - I _don't_ know, but we _are _going tofind out what that was Star, don't worry - it might have just been a very high-dosage flash bomb that he had been developing - or _they_" He broke off into thought as Starfire eyed him, confused.

"They?" she sat up properly.

"Hmmm…" Robin scratched his chin as he looked past Star and into the distance. She tried to not show her exasperation at his musings.

"You think that he is working with someone?" she blocked his stare. He blinked, suddenly coming back to reality.

"Um, yes - it seems that…" He frowned again and got up from the couch. Starfire flopped back into her seat and sighed - she had lost him. He began strolling towards the doors, still scratching his chin, one hand behind his back.

"I have to…" he barely glanced back at her as he continued to meditate and walk away.

"Tell Cyborg…yes, go ahead" the Tameranian sarcastically growled as she brought her knees up to her chest and turned back to the TV just in time to see Ross getting attacked by the spray tan machine.

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"Azarath….metrion….zinthos…"

_Breathe, let the air come into your lungs, healing._

"Azarath…metrion….zinthos…"

_The air is good, it is refreshing, powerful, healing._

"Azarath…metrion…."

"I'm bored!"

Raven opened her eyes - and glared at Rude Raven, who stood indignant in front of her in her orange robe, hands on hips.

"Can we do something else besides 'azarath, metrion, mentos?'" she flapped her arms and sighed.

Raven rolled her eyes at the emoticlone -

"I'm done now - I just had to use that to get here"

"Oh, well whoop-dee-fucking-doo, now lets go walkies or something - I wanna run at the birds again!"

Raven's eyes narrowed as she slowly floated to the ground to become face to face with the emoticlone.

"Why can't you EVER take our injury healing seriously?" she snarled, bringing her face right up to Rude Raven's, who sneered delightedly.

"Pfft – you think I give a shit in here?" She threw her arms up and spun around, barely missing Raven. Raven yanked her hood further over her face, turned sharply, and began walking towards the long winding path that would lead to her healing tree.

"You're not helping me heal at all" she muttered "Stay away from me until I get this sorted."

"Only if you pull that briar out of your ass, bro!" Rude Raven shrieked as her voice faded into the distance.

Raven huffed and stomped as she descended into an eerie forest, all the leaves and trees a dark purple, but motionless with no wind. A black bird with three burning red eyes along it's temple squawked at her. She threw it back into the shrubbery with a swift smack of the back of her hand.

"Nope. Not now."

"Aaaaaw – wook at de poor birdie!" a voice crooned behind her.

"No. Not now." Raven rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth as a Girly Raven, in her baby-pink robe, could be heard anxiously scooping up the bird, who in return screeched and flapped until it was released again.

"That was like, suuper mean Rae-babe!" she caught up to her and wiped her hands off her robe. "Like, even though he was totally gross, it's still, like, a bird? Ya know?"

"Fuck. Off."

"Babes!" Girly Raven gasped dramatically and her eyes widened "Are we angry today? Cus, believe me, I saw angry us today and she is TOTES on the rampage, ya know?"

"No."

"Oh, for real, like shouting and blowing up things and –"

"NO – I AM NOT TALKING TO YOU RIGHT NOW!"

"Oooh, you're angry!" Girly Raven swung in front of her and took her hands "What happened babes? Was it the flashy bomb thing?"

Raven released herself as gently as she could without dislocating a shoulder, and sighed.

"Yes. Now move."

"Okay!" Girly Raven settled behind her again "Let's talk about something else reaaal quick" she linked arms with her "Gar's. Abs. – I mean, what the fuck? Where did they come from! And he's clearly been moisturizing too, did you notice how soft his arm was –"

"NO! I DID NOT NOTICE! GOD!" Raven blew up into her demon form, black swirls of smoke protruded slowly around Girly Raven. She threw her hands up in surrender as it surrounded her shoulders.

"Alright, gurl, jeeez!"

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"Cy."

Beastboy's head lolled lazily around the doorway of the lab.

"Cyyyyyy…"

"Mmmm?"

"Take-out?"

"Mmmm"

"KFC?"

"Meh."

"Italian?"

"….and…Pizza Hut."

"Nice. K, I'll call em."

The scruffy green head disappeared. Silence. Cyborg slowly lifted his head from the metal table.

"B?"

Silence.

"Yeah?" his head popped around the doorway again.

"Any side-effects yet?"

"Nah, still head-achey. You?"

"Same."

"Dude." Beastboy whined and leaned against the wall. "The fuck was that anyway?" Cy borg sat up on the table, scratching his head.

"I really don't know, but I don't like the sounds of it."

"Yup." Gar frowned and stared back down the hallway. "Will I have a flick through the Doom books and see if there's anything?"

"Yeah, can't hurt. Doubt they've dealt with that kind of thing before though."

"Yeah…" he fluffed up his hair with his hand. "I'll see what's there, I'm running a few checks for that machine gun issue anyway."

"Oh, the one they used in that bank office?" Cybrog unplugged the wires from his shoulders.

"Yup."

"So it _was_ stolen Doom Patrol property?"

"Yeah. They found a fragment after the explosion with the logo etched into it. We think it's an oldie villain with updated tech to be able to break in like that."

"Huh, shit." Cyborg disconnected the last wire "You'd think they'd have that place better guarded after they retired, right?"

"It's crazy!" Beastboy smirked and pushed himself off the wall "K, I'll order some food."

"Thanks man."

"No prob bro."

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Beastboy rounded the corner as his communicator bleeped.

"Yello?" he flipped the cover up as he slinked along the hallway toward the main room.

"B, hey! Listen, we just got a weird ass bomb attack in the city like, an hour ago."

"Hotspot? Hold on a sec, cus we got that this morning."

"Aw man - Gizmo?"

"Yeaah!" Beastboy's eyebrows shot up as he tapped on Robin's door. "Robin, c'mere, we got another bomb attack!"

One swoosh of the electric door opening and the communicator was snatched out of his hand.

"Hotspot, we need details – Cyborg! Get the computer ready!" Robin barked as he ran to the main room.

Beastboy looked at his empty hand where the communicator had been as Cyborg came up behind him and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"I don't wanna do computer work" Cyborg announced, deadpan.

"I guess I should make that Pizza Hut, the local Italian AND Starbucks?"

Cyborg's head drooped.

"Double espresso."

The two whined in sync and they dragged themselves to the main room after the black cape.


End file.
